Wednesday, August 06, 2014

As I've mentioned, this job transition at work has really helped me in a lot of ways. Until I get busy again (which I figure will happen in the autumn) I'm doing no overtime, which means I have energy for things like getting back on the bike - so much easier to plan now that I know I'll be home around the same time every evening! - and catching up on my reading. And yesterday I "finished the internet," as I call it - I'm all caught up on blog reading! I don't think that's happened in months and months. Now it's time to get rid of some lingering bookmarks. I have stuff going back over a year!

So, so many from Melissa McEwan. I mean, Shakesville should be on your must-read list already, but if it isn't here are some highlights: an open letter to the Daily Show about what Paula Deen's actual problem was; the transcript of her speech last year to a photography class about body image (I'm so jealous, Leonard Nimoy was also there!); the now-famous Occam's Big Paisley Tie about privileged people suggesting to marginalized folks, "Are you sure this thing you experienced is actually bias because of your marginalized group rather than just about anything else?"; and what makes for a good job and what the government's role is there.

PZ Myers is my go-to atheist blogger, particularly when I get sick of the rampant sexism and crudeness of men like Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins. Besides, Dr. Myers is just wonderful to read. Here are some of my favorites of his from the past year - the wonderfully evocative Cherry Dream, an exhortation to the atheist community on the heels of the Bora Zivkovic (no longer on my blogroll either) matter, and one of the best Veterans Day posts ever and the follow-up in its aftermath, discussing the evil and absolute futility of war.

Speaking of Robin, he found this cartoon by Matt Wuerker really frustrating. Has anyone told Wuerker that coincidence isn't causality? Frankly I think smartphones and tech in general have made us much more aware of world goings-on than we used to be. And speaking of idiots, Matt at io0 has a very thoughtful entry on why the movie Idiocracy is actually a pretty cruel film.